Worst Day Ever
by ShayWhat
Summary: Akane's day started badly and seemed doomed to end that way...


Disclaimer - Alas, I do not own Ranma 1/2. But, I can dream.

This was written on a whim and lack of anything to do at work. Enjoy.

The Worst Day Ever

By MystyXIII

Akane walked home in the rain, feeling miserable. Today had been an absolutely horrible day. From the moment she had awaken to get ready for school everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. She had been up late the night before working on homework and being angry at Ranma. That in itself wasn't anything unusual, but she'd been angrier than normal since he had been stupider than normal. She really couldn't fathom how it was possible for one person to be that dense. This caused her to toss and turn more than normal, and when the alarm clock went off that morning she found herself perilously close to the edge of the bed which she promptly fell out of. She landed smartly on her elbow and now had a very impressive bruise on it. She shrugged off the pain and hurriedly prepared for school. Ten minutes later she was helping Kasumi bring breakfast into the dining area and suddenly found herself being accidentally knocked over by Ranma who had come running into the kitchen and hadn't been paying attention. Her dress was now covered in egg and tankatsu sauce. Ranma hurriedly apologized, ate a quick breakfast, and ran out the door. As he was running out the door he said that he had something to take care of before school started. Akane sighed.

It only got worse from there. She had quickly run upstairs, at Kasumi's suggestion, and changed clothes. Her other uniform was dirty as well (a result of yesterday's fight with Ranma) so she ended up having to wear civilians to school today. This, by normal standards, wasn't against the rules. These things happen. But, since their stupid principal had returned she just knew this was going to just get worse. If it weren't for the fact she had a test today (in Home Ec, which she was probably going to fail with flying colors once the teacher passed out from eating whatever disaster she had to make) she would stay home. But, nevertheless, she finished dressing and was now going to have to run to school if she hoped to make it on time. Taking as many shortcuts as she knew she ran through the gates just as the principal had started to close them; waiting on the other side had been Kuno-sempai with his arms wide open and spouting his usual nonsense about love and dating her. Her response had been to leap up and kick him in the back of the head as she flew over head. Landing on her feet, she took off at a run again. She really didn't want to stand outside with water buckets today. But that hope was smashed to the ground like a fine porcelain cup as the Principal descended on her in his usual crazy manner, chasing her around school with what he thought she should wear if she couldn't wear her uniform. Her response was to send him into lower orbit, but it was too late. The bell had rung.

Hanging her head she began the long climb upstairs to her homeroom. As predicted her teacher, Hinako-sensei, made her stand in the hall with a bucket of water for the total number of minutes late. When she finally came back into the classroom Ranma had looked at her curiously and all she could muster was a glare. This was his fault. All of it. It always was. Jerk. The test in Home Ec went exactly as she thought it would. She tried to warn the teacher, that they knew her cooking was always bad, but the teacher tasted it anyway and had to be carried down to the nurses' office. At lunchtime Akane realized she had left home without her bento box and the thought of even attempting to purchase something from the student store made her head hurt. So she decided she could wait till she got home that afternoon and went and sat under a tree, praying for a quiet lunch break. But like most things in her life, it just wasn't meant to be.

It started with Kuno approaching her. She had promptly sent him flying as high (if not higher) than his father. Gosunguki was trying to pin her with something or other, which made Ranma come over and forcefully remove him. Ranma going within three feet of Akane made Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi all appear, wanting him to go on a date with them after school. That quickly degenerated into a fight between the three girls with Akane stuck in the middle. Now, she wasn't a bad martial artist. She was quite good, truth be told. But there's only so much one can do when caught between three incensed crazy people. After five minutes of it she was finally able to disentangle herself from the middle of it, looked down, and found that her skirt had gotten ripped. Mumbling some of the choicer obscenities in her vocabulary she stomped her way back to class with the hope that the rest of the day would go smoothly.

Throughout the day she noticed Ranma staring at her randomly, but she just shook it off as him being weird. The last three hours of school were blissfully uneventful. She even felt up to staying for Gymnastics practice. Ranma had hung around for about an hour talking to the other boys who usually stayed to watch the girls practice. She knew she heard comments along the lines of uncute and tomboy, but managed to successfully ignore him while she completed her balance beam routine. By the time she was ready to pummel him, he had already left. As she was changing back into her torn dress she heard thunder rumbling deep and sighed. She hadn't known it was supposed to rain today and she did not have an umbrella. Lovely. Which brought her to now. She trudged through the rain, sneezing every few feet. Already two cars, not paying attention, had driven by and sprayed dirty water all over her and she was still a couple of streets away from home. As she walked into the foyer she mumbled her hellos, slipping off her soaked and dirty shoes.

"Oh my!" Akane looked up to see Kasumi staring at her.

"I forgot my umbrella," Akane mumbled. "And I'm freezing. And it's been a horrible day. Is the furo open?"

"Yes of course! Go take a hot bath and I'll let you know when your birthday dinner is ready." Akane blinked. Great, just great. It was her birthday today as well, and she had completely forgotten. Wow, today really was the worst day ever. With a whispered thank you Akane went upstairs to grab clean clothes. As she came around the corner of the steps she found Ranma standing in front of her room there looking sheepish.

"Something I can help you with?" Akane sneezed.

"Uh…no. Gee 'Kane, you look horrible." Ranma walked over to his fiancé and frowned. She really did too. She was soaking wet and trembling, her elbow was still swollen and bruised from whatever she had done this morning and she looked exhausted.

"Thank you so much for stating the obvious." She sneezed again. _Oh great. I'm getting sick to boot! Kami this day SUCKS._

"Uhm, 'Kane. Maybe you should lay…" But Ranma didn't have time to finish as he suddenly found himself having to quickly catch her before she hit the ground. "Kasumi! Akane's sick! She's got a fever!" Ranma removed his hand from her forehead worriedly. She was flushed and burning up. Kasumi came up the stairs and looked at Akane, feeling her forehead.

"Let's get her in bed." After she had been laid down, Kasumi asked him to go downstairs and get a bowl of water and a towel while she got her sick sister changed into her pajamas. When he came back upstairs the motherly sister had already changed and tucked in her youngest sister.

"If you don't mind, I'll watch Akane." Ranma stared at his feet, blushing. Kasumi smiled. For as much as they fought, they really did care about each other. It was the little things that would get them where they needed to be one day.

"Alright Ranma. Just keep the cloth on her forehead. I'll send Nabiki up with your dinner when it's done." With a smile Kasumi left the two alone and Ranma sat down in the chair next to Akane.

He liked to look at her. Everything he said to tease her was a lie, a cover up if you will. He was afraid to admit his real feelings for her, afraid she'd laugh at him. Or treat him like she treated all the boys at school that dared to ask for a date. He already spent most of his time in low orbit and would like to avoid adding to it. He looked at the girl and smiled. She really did have a bad day today and he knew that at least part of it was his fault; he just hoped he could make it up to her when she woke up. He had left for school early that day so that he would have time to go buy a gift for her birthday. He had seen it three months ago and had decided that it was the absolute perfect gift for her. It was just a simple necklace. The chain was made of delicate appearing silver, but it was stronger than it looked the lady at the counter assured him. _Just like Akane._ On the end dangled a locket, shaped like a yellow rose. Yellow was her favorite color, so he figured that would be a great start for this gift and the rose well…she was kind of like one. She was beautiful but had her thorny side. Kami knew he'd been pricked by her thorns enough to know they existed.

The hard part for him had been trying to decide if he should put pictures in the locket or let her. He had spent all day at school pondering the thought, watching her out of the corner of his eyes trying to glean how she would want it. Then about an hour after school, as he was watching her on the balance beam he was struck by a moment of sheer genius. He had made some silly off-hand comment about her being uncute and a tomboy when some of the guys around him started asking stupid questions about their lives. He had flinched; he hadn't meant to say it, especially with her so close. They locked eyes for just the barest of moments, but he could tell he was going to get smacked later. That's when he decided he was going to put his own pictures in the locket.

Running home he quickly went to his room and rummaged through his belongings. He knew he had a few pictures of the two of them together. After awhile he found the one he was looking for. Nabiki had taken this photo of them arguing back when he and his pop had first moved in. After scrounging up a pair of scissors, the young martial artist sat down and very carefully cut their faces out to fit the sides of the locket. Once that was done and they were set in there with just a small amount of glue he looked at the image they made. He thought it looked great. _Which means she'll probably hate it_. _I never do anything right._ When she had come up the stairs and found him he was trying to decide how to give it to her. Then everything else happened. Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled out the box the necklace was in, looking at it.

"R-Ranma?" Ranma looked down at the girl in front of him and smiled.

"Hey 'Kane. How do you feel?"

"Like I've been beaten up by Shampoo, Ukyo, and Kodachi. Oh…wait. Bad analogy," she responded through a half smile and promptly followed up with a sneeze.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. But, from the way it looked they all missed you for the most part. You've gotten good." Akane noted that there was the barest hint of pride in his voice and that made her heart get a bit giddy. He had complimented her? On martial arts? "But seriously, you feel any better? Can I get you anything?" He was concerned! Now she was giddy and confused.

"Uhm, a glass of water would be good." Ranma reached behind him and grabbed the glass that was behind him, glad that Kasumi had thought ahead. "Mmm…thanks."

"So…uh sorry your birthday sucked." Ranma put his hand in his pocket, fumbling for the small box he had hurriedly put back there when Akane had woken up. "I got…I got this for you. It's not much, but I hope you like it." He carefully placed the box on the blankets within reach of her hands and watched as she carefully reached for it. Her face was a mixture, in equal parts, of confusion and curiosity. He closed his eyes when she started to open it, not wanting to see disappointment. But when a few seconds had passed and there had been no sound other than the box clicking open he dared to open one eye and was shocked by what he saw. Akane still had the box in one hand, but her other hand was over her mouth and she was silently crying.

"'Kane, I'm sorry. I'll take it back. Please don't cry." Akane looked over at him and before he had time to react she had dropped the box and thrown both arms around his neck.

"I love it baka," she whispered while her face was buried in his chest. Ranma felt his heart rate speed up as he wrapped his arms around her tiny frame.

"D-did you see inside the locket?" With one hand Ranma reached over and picked up the discarded box. The locket was still closed. Carefully balancing Akane (who still had her arms around his neck) he opened the locket. "Here silly. Look." Akane reluctantly let go and looked at the locket. She suddenly found herself laughing as she fell back over on her bed.

"Wow…that's a great picture. Sure is us, huh." She couldn't stop giggling. The present was perfect. "Thank you Ranma." She made a move to grab the box out of his hands but he pulled back at the last minute. "What are you doing Ranma?" She watched as he carefully lifted the necklace from the box.

"You wanna wear it right?" Akane nodded and sat up smiling. Ranma carefully slid the necklace around her neck and she felt her skin get goose pimply. She could feel him fumbling with the clasp, but sighed contentedly. Maybe things would work out in the end. Ranma meanwhile was having a hard time with the clasp. His hands weren't meant to handle something this tricky plus the added effect of being in this close proximity (and not fighting) to Akane was nerve wracking. After a few more seconds he was able to get it clasped and, reluctantly, let his hands fall away. He wasn't ready to tell her how he really felt, but, maybe this locket was a good start.

Akane was sad when he finally got the clasp to work and had pulled his hands away. But the gift was a good reminder that he had put effort into something…for her. She wasn't ready to tell him how she really felt, but, she hoped that her love for the locket was a good start. Reaching her hand out she snatched his and laced her fingers through it. Her last thought before falling back asleep was that he looked cute when he was confused and blushing and that, perhaps, this wasn't the worst day ever.


End file.
